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,V>^, 









REPLY OF THE DELEGATES 



<>r THE 



CHEROKEE NATION 



TO THK 



PAMPHLET 



OF THK 



Commissioner of Indian Affairs. 



WASHINGTON, £>. CL 
1866. 



1*1 

The allegations of the Commissioner are that our Unionism 
was insincere, our services rendered for a consideration, and that, the 
rebels who fought the government were as deserving as the loy- 
alists who defended it. Indeed, such is his language that we are 
led to infer he regrets we served the government. What are the 
notorious and palpable facts? Out of a male adult population of 
1,300, at least 3,000 were in the Federal service. The losses in 
battle of the Union soldiers of the Cherokee nation is fifty per 
cent, greater than the losses of the State that lost most heavily 
(Kansas). Our country was made the theatre of active war to 
defend Kansas and Missouri from invasion. Our improvements 
were destroyed by both armies. Our flocks and herds taken by 
both armies, and uls-> driven from our country to Kansas in enor- 
mous herds. Because we espoused the righteous cause of the 
government, against rebels, we are traduced by them to that gov- 
ernment; and because we set our faces against the gigantic frauds 
that disgraced the Indian service, and much of the army service, 
we are exposed to the powerful and corrupt organizations, which, 
it appears, it is difficult either to check or punish. We neither 
can, nor will, countenance such corruption to escape its hatred. 
We are, indeed, a small nation, but have learned enough to know 
that in the rigid honor aud integrity of public business alone, is 
the security of all government. Bettor to be overthrown honestly 
fighting a corrupt combination, than yield ourselves its willing 
prey. 

Had we consented that your government and ours should be 
robbed, we would not have had to meet the charges of disloyalty. 
We protest against the ex-parte statement of a Commissioner who 
seeks his testimony from the enemies we fought in defending 
your government. We claim to be heard by an impartial tribu- 
nal ere we are condemned. Having furnished two-thirds of its 
adult male population for the armies of the United States, the 
Cherokee Nation cannot understand how she can be outlawed 
by the victory she aided in bringing about. Having received 
honorable discharges, after three years of hard service for the 
Union, her people did not understand that charges of disloyalty 
would then be brought against them; but if they are to be 
brought, they are amply prepared to meet them. Since we can- 
not receive the generosity which might have been given our ser- 
vices and sufferings, at least give us the hearing that is not 
denied the meanest criminal. 

We will not here, or now, republish letters or documents dis- 
proving what the Commissioner assumes, although amply able to 
do so. The matter has reached a point, beyond which it is 
unnecessary to make further assertions. We respectfully demand 
a hearing, and the closest scrutiny into all these affairs, and the 
action of the Indian Bureau for the past four years. We assert, 
and can prove: 

1st, That as Wards of the Government we were abandoned. 



and that the troops, which by our treaties were to protect u§, 
were withdrawn, leaving us to the mercy of the enemy. 

2d. That the mass of our people were, and wished to b«, 
loyal to the Government of the United Stages, and by our Prin- 
cipal Chief John Ross, and Executive Council, declined all offers 
of the "Confederacy" to treat with them, until the neighboring 
[ndian tribes, with a faction of our own citizens, were nearly all 
confederated with the rebel States against us, the country plunged 
into actual war, and the military power holding the country was 
threatening to make a Government out of the rebel minority in 
our midst. 

3d. That our temporary arrangements with the rebel author- 
ity, we declare and can prove, were, when made, merely to save 
our people from a military power against which we had no pro- 
tection. 

4th. That we, the majority of our people, embraced the first 
opportunity to throw ourselves under the protection of the Fed- 
eral Government. That we maintained our national Government 
under its authority- That we voluntarily abolished slavery in 
February, 1863. and have continued to maintain our Government 
to this moment. 

5th. That the [ndian Bureau has invaded our rights, with- 
held our funds, stopped our schools, compelled our Government 
aod the judicial officers to be paid in scrip, attempted to pauper- 
ize our people in the face of our protest, and is conniving at and 
seeking to accomplish the destruction of our Government. 

6th. That the system of supplying Indians by contract is a 
mere wholesale fraud, by which our funds are improperly applied, 
and also the funds of the Government. 

7th. That the rejection of our Principal Chief, John Ross, 
from the Council at Fort Smith, was an act of tyranny, and was 
designed to deprive us of his valuable counsels to the end that 
the Commissioner might* defraud and ruin our people, and was 
part of a conspiracy for that purpose. 

8th. That our Agent is the enemy of our people, misrepre- 
sents them, and is in league with corporations and contractors 
who seek to destroy us. and is not acceptable to our people. 

And we ask if this pamphlet of the Commissioner is to form 
a part of the records of the [ndian Office, that this our answer 
be published with it. All we have asked of the Senate, or the 
Government, is searching scrutiny. Until that is given, every 
sentiment of justice would forbid that mere statements against us 
he published, [f it be the business of the Indian Bureau to make 
aud print cruelly unjust and false assertions against the civilized 
[ndian people, its wards, we have misconceived it. If you give 
us the searching scrutiny we now demand, we will prove that 
what has been called supplies to perishing Indians, has, in our 
superintendency. been merely a means of dishonestly obtaining 
and spending money through a company as formidable as it is 



m 

i-orrupt. We will prove to you tliat the civilization of our and 
ether Indian nations, bias -'arisen from tiie abolition of pir capita 
payment?, and the use of the funds for government, courts 61 
justice and education— and that the attempt to re-pauperize, is ;t 
fatal blow to the policy that has elevated us. and is designed for 
our destruction. We will prove to you tl al ■ ! ; ise who robbed us 
of our stock while we were defending your Government, did it 
through the assistance and connivance of the [Toil - In 

dian officials. We will prove to you that all the charges against 
us are the malignant falsehoods of tbose bent on despoiling us 

To you, this may not be a matter of much interest. To the 
vindication of our honor it is indispensable. !t wis not tin 
tune of the loyal Cherokee people to carrj out of the war for the 
Union much more than their honor, arid that they desire shall 
remain unsullied. To this end shall we struggle until our re 
has its complete vindication. We kri'ott what is justly du 
and we will not accept less. We have made and maintained a 
free government, and we propose to prove' to the Vnieric u 
pie that it is worthy of tlwir consideration. We t'anrpbt <■< 
to be the victims of this or .that se't of c'6'm >■ railroad 

Htock-jobbers. We expect to hold a place at least not uilw.i 
of the civilization with which we may be surrounded, 
renown gained by our gallant dead in this war. ■ .- part ■ 
roost sacred heritage of out nation Our two I'nion bat-th 
are in the Council Cnamber '' our nation never coii 

sent that these, or the honor of their Q shall eyCf be 

sullied. On these matters we ask our entire vindication, or de 
mand a. rigid and se<<rehimr scrutiny. 
We. have the hon n 

V.-rv Respectfully four ' >b ' > rv t-, 
SMITH CHRISTIE, 
.i \MK- | delegate* 

WHITE CATCHER, of the 

;1 BENi 
J. B. JONES. \\,;. 

DAN'L 11. ROSS, 



TO THK LOYAL CHEROK EK DELEG V\ [ON. 

Gnitlcnun :• — 

Having seen in a report made by the Cbirfmissioner of 
Indian Affairs, addrecsed to the President, an attack upon the 
loyalty of the men who lately composed the 2d arid 3d [rJ 
Regiments: and having a'ssiSted in raising the 2d Reginreirfc ; 



ET] 

and being in command oi it tor a considerable time: 1 feel called 
upon to >rietk, what i know in reference to theni. 

If vtfas tiie intention (»!' tlie Government, in March 1862, to 
raise the Lst and 2d Jftegiinents from among the men who came 
out with < )jn,tii-!'- ho ;:'.;. rid ••> . • nt that tune encamped at Leroy. 
in -.Mnic-ni Kansas. 'Xhe '■ - g^giment was raised there, and 
seven companies or! the 2d ai-o; pnly bwo Of the latter, howevc . 
were of soul her.u refugee Indians. 

While at Leroy enlisting these men, we were in constant 
ruienmnicati'in mth the loyal portion of the Cherokees, whom 
you now represent, and it Was then perfectly understood between 
ii- b< ■■ ' \} ■' i been linally decided upou, 

roops adv,ancejd intq the Nation, the 
loyal LndiaaMj incdu ting < '■■'>. Drew's, regiment, wouldjoin us. 

They said at thai tune, and I believe with eutirc truth, that 

Drew's regiment had been raised in order to protect the loyal 

portion of tip t Ik- outrages of Stand Waitie's 

rebel lines and entirely within their 

>ed under Confederate auspices. 

fcbja^. understand jn I Weir's expedition advanced 

into; irties Game to us constantly. 

A i ( . ■ i > > i . ('-r-k, on the Itb of July, three hundred came in, and 

Col. Weil such confidence in their sincerity and loyalty, 

them under Col. Ritchie as escort for a large Govern- 

' ? prisoners, then on its way to Kansas. 

At i' on tic < • > arol River, the remainder of the loyal 

tnent was organized. 

ly after, when the white portion of our army under Gen 

irum the Nation, and the Osages and other 

d deserted hb in that trying hour when all 

uihilation of our Indian regiments seemed 

inevitable, we raised six full companies pf Cherokees to till the 

places of the d 2 i Regiment. 

From tiii- history is a mo t honorable 

one. For three years I hi our battles, leaving their dead 

on every battle-field, enduriug every privation, their homes des- 
1 and laid waste, their cattle driven off and slaughtered In 
thousands by our own men, — having suffered all this for our 
cause, our '.country cannot afford to disgrace itself now by im- 
pugning their loyalty in order to despoil them of a portion of 
their country . 

Very truly Vour>. 

DA VIM B. CORWIN, 

Late Lieut. Col. 2d lud. Reg't. 



[81 

Washington City, D. C, I860. 
Col. Wm. A. Phillips : 

Sir: — Permit us to call your attention to a pamphlet 
recently published by the Hon. Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 
devoted chiefly to the misrepresentation and abuse of the loyal 
Cherokees, their Principal Chief, John Boss, and delegation now 
in this City. 

As this pamphlet is calculated to mislead the uninformed, 
to prejudice the rights of our people and otherwise do them great 
harm, we are forced to the necessity of offering a short reply to 
the Commissioner's invidious assault. As our old commander for 
three years during the war, and intimately acquainted with the 
history of our Nation, we appeal to you to defend us in the pre- 
sent emergency. 

We feel that we may appeal to you who was first of the Fed- 
eral officers to enter our country in 1862, the organizer of the 
loyal Indian troops, their commander for three years, and mus- 
tering out officer after the the termination of hostilities, to at 
least give us the benefit of your testimony in the premises, and 
to defend, if you deem them worthy of it, our services and our 
loyalty. 

Your compliance will much oblige Yours, 

WHITE CATCHER, , 
DAN'L H. ROSS, | Delegate* 

SMITH CHRISTIE. ! of the 
JAMES McDANIEL, f Cherokee 
S. H. BENGE, Nation. 

J. R. JONES, J 



Washington City. J). C, July 20. 1866. 
To the Delegates of the Cherokee Nation : 

Gentlemen : — While those to whose care the Government has 
intrusted you, are foremost among your tiaducersand oppressors. 
L may not hesitate in responding to the invitation to aid your just 
defence, [t is true I have incurred some abuse by becoming your 
champion ; but, when I reflect on the heavy debt of gratitude the 
Nation owes you for services in the late war, aud for securing 
with but little aid from white troops their supremacy in the In- 
dian Territory, I. as your commander, feel that perhaps thus f 
t-an discharge a small portion of that debt of gratitude, about 
which others appear to be so insensible. 



[9] 

Desirous that you should be impressed at once with the dig- 
nity and fairness of the Government of flhis great Republic, I 
profoundly regret that the head of that Bureau which connects 
it with you, should have stooped from his high position to become 
a pamphleteer against his wards. I had, indeed, expected that 
he would have considered it not the least of his duties, to see 
that your just rights were not imposed upon. I could have re- 
turned home, after service of four years, content that on others 
should rest the readjustment of a province that had been main- 
tained by the sword. For my part, I had believed there were 
two things that this great Government could not afford to do : to 
despoil the weak of their property, or deprecate the services of 
their faithful allies. Surely the Commissioner might have re- 
garded, as not the least among his duties, your just defence, or 
to be your apologist for unavoidable misfortune. Sad, indeed, 
must be the condition of the republic when a high official rakes 
the purlieus of rebeldom to belittle your services and impeach 
your loyalty. I am mortified by the perusal of the Commission 
er's fifty-eight pages of libel. With unblushing eagerness he 
endeavors to demonstrate that the services of our only friends 
were insincere, and that the men who for four years were the im- 
placable enemies of the republic, are their superiors. Private 
conversations are distorted to disprove official records, which even 
the Commissioner is forced to admit cannot be impeached. With 
what eagerness does he introduce the ex parte statement of 
the Aid of the rebel leader McCulloch, to prove that^he official 
paper sent that General was insincere. With what indecent haste 
does he publish a letter from a Major>General of our army and 
a member of Congress, the one lobbying, the other working for 
a railroad bill, which contemplated obtaining from the Cherokee 
Nation two millions of acres of its richest land, and who must 
overthrow the Cherokee Government to enable them to find pur- 
chasers. With what unparalleled mendacity does he give what 
he offers as a " phonographic report" of an interview between you 
and him, in which all that would have exhibited the true state of 
the case is suppressed, and whatever might serve his purposes is 
distorted. With what eagerness does he parade the r-tatements 
of an Agent, whom the Cherokees recognize as the creature of 
speculators, and driven by the utter loss of confidence of the loyal 
men, to cultivate the good wishes of rebels by traducing to them 
the loyal Cherokee people. As Federal Commander in the In- 
dian Territory, during the greater part of the war, I tendered a. 
letter giving my evidence, urging that if other letters are used, 
mine should be used. Mine is rejected, and the Commissioner 
parades that of Douglass II. Cooper, the commanding officer of 
the rebel armies in my front. To such a pitiable position haa 
the Commissioner fallen. 

The Commissioner says : 

''From the beginning of the war to the invasion l>g Col, Wtir, 

2 



[10] 

of the Nation, as far as I have been able to learn, not one loyal 
word had ever been written or spoken by any Cherokee, or by Mr. 
Ross." 

Did the Commissioner know that he was wilfully falsifying, 
or does he — knowing nothing about it — give currency to such a 
cruel falsehood. It would not have been difficult for him to 
learn, that communication after communication was sent North. 
Some of these reached Gen. Hunter — especially the appeal from 
the Cherokees brought by Capt. Jas. McDaniel. One paper was 
Bent to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and could have been 
found if Mr. Cooley had looked for it. Before the battle of 
"Wilson's Creek," one month, I received, with others in Kansas, 
a communication brought from the Cherokee Nation, giving the 
exact force, arms, artillery, &c, of the rebel army under McCul- 
loch — and a letter was written communicating the facts to the 
Department of Missouri. Above all, the loyal Cherokees when 
ordered in the held in 1861 after O-poth-le-yo-ho-lo, went over 
and fought against the rebels. At Pea Ridge, whither they were 
ordered, only a small portion of the Drew Regiment went, and 
they did not fire a gun at the Union army. In truth, these men 
had then determined, if any chance was offered, to go over at 
that time to our army. 

But look at this language from the pen of the Commissioner : 

"After the soldiers had been in the rebel service ten months 
" and remaining unpaid, unclothed, un cared for, unthunked even, 
" services unrecognized, they were easily convinced that they 
" were loyal, and by a slight strain on a lively imagination, they 
"could see that they had been loyal to the United States from the 
" first, and that they had been coerced into the rebel service, 
"although nobody else even knew that any rebel soldier ever 
" invaded their country or threatened it ; but, on the contra^ 
" ry, Gen. McCulioch had promised them (and kept his pro- 
" mise) that they should not lie invaded by the rebels unless to 
"repel the United States army from their country." 

It is difficult to realize that a man pretending to be loval 
could have written the above. The rebel McCulloch's word, or 
rather, the statements of even worse rebels than he, is at once taken 
for granted, as evidence to impugn and invalidate the testimony 
of Union soldiers. 

As the expedition under Col. Weir entered the Indian Ter- 
ritory, it was kept advised, from time to time, by communications 
from the Cherokee Nation. One loyal Cherokee woman, before 
it left Kansas, bore a communication to John Ross. And what 
was that expedition? Planned without consent of the Govern- 
ment, or at best premature, it started on a wild adventure without 
adequate means or transportation, impelled by the knowledge 
that a friendly people awaited us, who thus, by being induced 
prematurely to take open issue in our favor, were exposed to 
ruin, So far from Col. Weir " sending a regiment for John Ross," 



[11] 

the former bad been under arrest (by mutiny) for ten days, and 
was on bia way to Kansas, and the broken debris of that little 
army was scattered for one hundred miles along Grand River, 
when an earnest appeal came to Col. Furnass and myself from 
Juhn Ross' family. When these people came to our cause, they 
came to no assured victory. Of the communication thus passing 
between John Ross and the Federal army, only two men could 
truly speak — one Dr. Gilpatrick, killed in 1863 at Webber's Falls 
—the other the writer of this. Having led in the greater portion 
of those Cherokees, Mr. Gooley, and organized them under 
orders, I know that they embarked in what was then obviously 
a desperate cause, and that these people threw away all they 
were worth in defending ir. 

Nor did they come to plenty and comfort. For months they 
campaigned without getting a blanket. Many of these men took 
sick and died 1'or lack of proper clothing and shelter. Their 
women and little ones, used to respectable clothing and comfort- 
able homes, were houseless, starving fugitives. Even in 1863, 
the second year of their service, they suffered as few portions of 
the Union army suffered. Often have I fed to them from three 
to six ounces of wheat, per day, with beef and salt from their 
own nation — and yet, they worked at the fortifications and de- 
fended Fort Gibson, with a rebel army three times their number, 
in their front. During that eventful seige of Gibson, if my camp 
had contained a single disloyal element, it could not have existed 
a day. Had he seen them when the smoke of " Fort Davis " went 
up to Heaven, and when we hauled up the stripes and* stars amid 
the enthusiasm of those gallant men. ihe Commissioner would 
have cut off his right arm ere he would have so traduced them. 
I have, indeed, seen the Union soldiers of many a State, have 
had many of them in my command, and would belittle the devo- 
tion and integrity of none of them, but more devotion to the 
Union cause I have never witnessed than from our loyal Indian 
soldiers. 

When the inner history of this conspiracy against the loyal 
Indians is written, the infamous conduct of those who have plot* 
ted their ruin will, I hope, secure by its recoil, justice for these 
people. During the bitter war for the Union, where was this 
glib Commissioner when these gallant men he traduces were 
lighting for their country ? Did he enter the service, even with 
the prospect of better pay and clothes than it was ever the for- 
tune of the Cherokees to get? Away from danger, with the 
emoluments of a clerkship in Congress, he surely was not in a 
condition to revile the memory of hundreds of these gallant men 
who fought and died for freedom and the Union. 

I shall not be forced, even by the grossly unjust treatment 
of Mr. Ross, to make this p;>per a mere vindication of him — I 
write to vindicate the Cherokee Nation — yet God forbid that I 
should do anything save repel the base calumnies against him. 



[12] 

I brought the greater part of these men to our service — and know- 
ing, as I well do, that without his actual aid and sympathy we 
could not have done it. I do not hesitate to bear witness that 
his heart was with the Union cause. Nor does the Commissioner 
think him a rebel. If he had thought so, he would have hasten- 
ed to make a treaty with him long ago. He has indecently hur- 
ried into a treaty with men who legally represented nothing — 
and with every rebel Cherokee in the city who had the single 
qualification of being in arms against the Government. Some of 
these men have not been in the nation for many years. Others 
are fugitives from justice. Had the Commissioner believed Mr. 
Ross to be a rebel, he would have treated with him long ago. 
The cruel treatment of Mr. Ross may end a career as useful as 
brilliant. I know he aided our cause ; God forgive me if I for- 
get it. 

On page 14 of the Commissioner's pamphlet, he says, speak- 
ing of the Union and rebel armies in the Indian Territory : 

li The depredations were reciprocal, and the black flag 
"seemed to be the banner under which both parties fought." 

For the man, thus enjoying a government and its honors, 
won by brave men, to traduce its defenders, is as scandalous as 
it is base. Shall his high position shelter him from the con 
tempt he merits for such dishonor to the dead? Where wan he 
when these brave men stood and died at Newtonia, or gallantly 
drove the enemy up the mountains at Cane Hill? Nor is his 
slur that they " scalped on either side for pay," any truer in state- 
ment than in spirit. The Commissioner, indeed, seems to be pro- 
foundly ignorant of bis wards, or the fact that these people are 
civilized men. Only one solitary instance of scalping ever occurred 
in the Union army, and it was done by one of the companies of 
Delawares from Kansas, in our service. When Lieut. Col. Tay- 
lor, of Stand Watie's regiment — under whom, and Jack Spear.*, 
(another officer of Watie's regiment) the scalping at Pea Ridge 
was done — fell at the fight on Bayou Maynard, on the 27th of 
July, 1862, he was scalped secretly in the dusk of the evening by 
some one of the Delaware coinpany, shortly after mustered out. 
I never knew of one solitary case of scalping, or barbarity on the 
part of our Creek or Cherokee soldiers. 

But, besides the soldiers, who were under orders and dis- 
cipline, there were hundreds of loyal Cherokee guerillas, who 
fought all the time on their own hook, without even the pretence 
of "pay and allowance," Mr. Commissioner. As fast as these 
could be placed under the restraints and discipline of the army, 
it was done. One of the pamphlets — written by these rebels 
and paraded by the Commissioner — mentions a list of what it calls 
murders — which occurred during the war, chiefly by these gue- 
rillas. Nearly all of these cases were of rebel spies. They 
occurred during the rule of military authority in the Territory, 
and the civil authorities of the Cherokee Nation are in no wise 



[18] 

repponsible. These events were marked by nothing more than 
characterized the war every where — yet the Commissioner refers 
daintily to this rebel calumny, and sends it to the Senate of 
the United States. In that pamphlet the rebels tell false- 
hoods about and insult Union officers, who fought for the 
Government for three years. The Commissioner makes haste to 
indorse them. This pamphlet is one of his " accompanying docu- 
ment*" while not a word from our loyal Cherokees is permitted 
to appear in this official report. 

If the Commissioner is the attorney for those who seek to 
dismember the Cherokee Government and to despoil her of her 
funds and lauds, let me intreat him to shelter the office he holds 
from the reproach of such official signatures. There is surely 
money enough in it to warrant the interposition of a third party. 
Let me suggest to him that it must cripple a position not very 
far above reproach, to mar it thus by such indecent partizan ex- 
hibitions. And, again, Mr. Commissioner, if the crime of which 
you accuse Mr. Ross, of being an insincere Union man — of hav- 
ing supported our cause from selfish motives — if this iniquity 
had been true, and so deep in your estimation as to expose the 
property of his whole people to official pillage, and a Govern- 
ment worthy of the support and admiration of civilized men to 
ruin and overthrow — if this be the punishment of such crime, 
what punishment, think you, Mr. Commissioner, is due the man 
who would try to make a treaty with irresponsible rebels repre*- 
renting nothing — men who fought the Government to the last — 
and who sought to buy your consideration, by the ruin of their 
country ? 

At the close of this great war, had a Commission, animated 
like Mr. Cooley and Mr. Sells, entered the States of Tennessee. 
Virginia and Kentucky, and sat in judgment on the acts of the 
men who had maintained the Federal cause — had they excluded 
from their confidence ail loyal men, and sent for the most bitter 
and implacable rebels — listened to all the venom they had to 
utter against these loyal men — encouraged them in denouncing 
the "outrages" of loyal men — glibly said that "these parties com- 
mitted mutual depredations, and sailed under the black flag" — 
heard distorted reports of speeches made under duress, to save, 
in times of terrible peril, from death and ruin, and accepted tho 
full meaning of these, as more than au offset for years of valua- 
ble service — had such Commissioners treated us to a rehash 
of every Yankee schoolmaster that had been hung or tar- 
red ami feathered for twenty years in these States, and then phi- 
losophically determined that "humanity forbid such people from 
heing placed under one government" — we would have had the ex- 
act counterpart of the Commissioner's " Cherokee question." 

It is possible, Mr. Commissioner, that the Government may 
never again be plunged into war. In the moment of victory, it 
is a happy temperament that can shut out from its comprehension 



[14] 

the possibility of it. Still, all the lessons of history teach us 
that a sacred good faith can never be broken with impunity. Had 
the policy the Commissioner now pursues been followed during 
the war, he would now have no power to break the faith of im- 
plied obligations. A more catholic spirit, and a wiser diplomacy 
happily prevailed — and instead of beiDg obliged to keep an army 
of ten thousand men to defend our south-western frontier, we 
found, and organized in the Cherokee and Creek Nations, and 
under the influence of their free Governments, a little loyal army 
of thirty-five hundred men. that kept in check the Choctaws and 
Cbickasaws, ail rebels, and th< portion of rebel Creeks and Cher- 
okees. And further, the little , rmy at Gibson had twice as many 
Tex an s to fight as it had white soldiers. 

The Cherokee Government, holding the regular sessions of 
its Legislature, — abolishing slavery, — fully up to the political 
staudard of the times, and maintaining our cause, gave all the 
resources of their Nation to the struggle. 

It was intimated by the Commissioner, that the (Jherokces 
fought for us for pecuniary considerations. What are the facts? 
They abandoned their homes and property to enter the Federal 
service. Each man brought his arms, horse and accoutrements 
— and for the use and destruction of over three thousand horses 
in our service, they were never paid. While campaigning in 
Missouri in 1862, they were armed with more eflicient and uni- 
form arms, and for want of transportation their own arms were des- 
troyed. They were never paid for them. During one half of 
their term of service, owing to their exposed condition in front, 
they had about half rations without commutation. The rebels 
stole their property in front, and their loyal friends stole it in 
the rear. Their country was seared by the desolation of war. 
Their public buildings in Tah-lo-quah were destroyed by the 
enemy — the beautiful residence of their Chief, John Ross, laid 
in ashes by Stand Watie. Their funds were withheld by harpies 
who squandered them in fraudulent contracts. Their schools 
could not be kept. The Legislature that abolished slavery, paid 
in scrip, not yet redeemed. And now at the close of the war, 
when every sentiment of law and decency would require that the 
property of the Cherokee Nation be paid to it as its treaties 
require, those who have eaten it for four years, charge them with 
having been rebels ; and as a fitting punishment for such crime, 
that the Cherokee free government be broken up, and its funds 
and lands be divided so as to be placed in the disposal of the 
wretched harpies who have been fattening on it. That such im- 
pudent assumptions should not procure dishonorable dismissal 
from office of those making them, is the most significant com- 
mentary on the deplorable condition of affairs. 

I regret to be compelled to say that three-fourths of the 
statements of the Commissioner, in his pamphlet, are incorrect. 
It ie not true they tefused to treat for the reasons he gives. 



BD 12.8 



fit 



[15] 

They offered to concede more than they ought to have been asked 
to concede. The only real point of divergence, was setting up a 
government for the rebel minority in their midst. After giving 
three thousand men to maintain the integrity of the Federal 
Union, they protested against giving the rebel minority in their 
own country a separate government. It is not true that the 
Commissioner tried, to obey his orders by inducing the rebels to 
go home. It is not true " that he found no one person dissent- 
'• ing from his opinions, but the Ross delegation " It is not 
true, that they insisted on retaining 380 acres of land for each 
person. They insisted simply on having their own. It is not 
true that he offered them a fair consideration for it. It is not 
true that they refused to make any grants to railroads. But it 
is true that they insist — as they have a right to do — on proper 
considerations. It is not true that Mr. Cooley banished Mr. 
Ross from the Council because he believed him to be a secession 1 
ist — because he took in the most bitter rebels there. It is not 
true that Mr. Ross' " zeal and activity forsook him when he 
reached the Union lines." It is not true that when "Col. Weir 
invaded the Cherokee Nation, Mr. Ross refused to have an inter- 
view with him." It is not true that Col. Weir got such a letter 
as the Commissioner speaks of from Mr. Ross. It is not true 
that Col. Weir sent a regiment after Mr. Ross. It is not true 
that "want of power and authority" was the only objection of 
the Cherokee delegation at Fort Smith. But why enumerate all 
the misstatements of the Commissioner's pamphlet? It is a hap- 
less tissue of misrepresentation. 

But had it all been true, Mr. Commissioner, would it have 
justified an invasion of Cherokee rights? 

If the Commissioner is sorry that they were loyal, he must 
at least remember that the Act of Congress of 18l>2, only gave 
the President power to issue a proclamation declaring the rights 
of the Nations that had participated in the rebellion, forfeited, 
if it could be done, in law nr equity. Whether it could or not, 
!' evident Lincoln resolutely refused to do it. There is not 
i h likelihood that Prc-iilent Johnson will do it now — espe^ 
ciui.y against the allies m i he Government. 

The assumptions, the- ei'ore, of the Commissioner, do as much 
violence to law and equity, as his statements do to fact, [f there 
is a tribunal before which he could be indicted, there are sub- 
jects matter for the demolition of twenty Commissioners. 

What a stupendous farce is our whole Indian diplomacy! 
It is little better than an institution for obtaining land on false 
pretences, and carrying on a system of jobbing to the tune of 
fifty per cent., in what we are pleased to call Indian annuities. 
If such enormities were perpetrated against the negroes, the na- 
tion would groan against it. Tie Commissioner speaks of the 
"' Patriot O-poth-le-yo-ho-la," an, buys the land of the Creeks, 
(worth u dollar an acre,,) for thirty cents, and sells part of it 



[16] 

back to the Seuiinoles for fifty in the next breath — having bought 
theirs for little more than fifteen. He removes them about from 
their improved farms, — for which improvements he gives them 
no adequate compensation, — and having done his best to break 
them up and ruin them, proposes pauperizing them by "per 
capita' payments. His "plan, v ' in fact, exhibits such utter ig- 
norance of the Indian couutry and character, and Buch a disre- 
gard for the spirit of justice — and in sowing the seed of discord 
and pauperism, exhibits such botchwork and deplorable disre- 
gard for the true interests of the Government and the Indians, 
that at least one of the enemies of the Indian people will never 
be able, in a fit of remorse, to blow his brains out. 

I have more faith in the Government than to believe it con- 
templates seizing the property of the Cherokee Nation. Is their 
weakness the strongest reason for despoiling them? If we have 
not the greatness to foster their interesting Government, surely 
we can have the honesty to let it alone. But, are we to encour- 
age the complaints of every grumbler against it, or of every crim- 
inal escaping from its justice? We may hope "the Indians will 
die out speedily,"' and inwardly wish they would be quicker 
about it. We may refuse to believe that they are civilized, or 
secretiy wish they were less so — but rising from the bloody inci- 
dents of a glorious history, posterity will see a little nation 
maintaining a free Government, with a language, a literature — 
even an alphabet of their own, enthusiastically engaging with 
three-fourths of their grown men, in our war for the Union, — im- 
poverished in our cause ; and looking at the advent of peace, 
instead of seeing a great Government seeking to reward the sol- 
diers who served her, to " bind up the wounds — to take care of 
the orphans and impoverished," — they will see the Indian Bu- 
reau bringing to Washington the most bitter rebels these men 
had been fighting for years, as witnesses against them, and seek- 
ing with eager eyes the disruption and overthrow of the ally that 
Sought for and trusted the Government. 

Very Respectfully, 

Your Ob't Serv t. 

WM. A. PHILLIPS 



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